In a Nervous Voice: Acoustic Analysis and Perception of Anxiety in Social Phobics’ Speech |
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Authors: | Petri Laukka Clas Linnman Fredrik Åhs Anna Pissiota Örjan Frans Vanda Faria Åsa Michelgård Lieuwe Appel Mats Fredrikson Tomas Furmark |
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Institution: | (1) Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 1225, 751 42 Uppsala, Sweden;(2) Department of Neuroscience, Psychiatry, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden;(3) Uppsala Imanet AB, Uppsala, Sweden |
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Abstract: | This study investigated the effects of anxiety on nonverbal aspects of speech using data collected in the framework of a large
study of social phobia treatment. The speech of social phobics (N = 71) was recorded during an anxiogenic public speaking task both before and after treatment. The speech samples were analyzed
with respect to various acoustic parameters related to pitch, loudness, voice quality, and temporal aspects of speech. The
samples were further content-masked by low-pass filtering (which obscures the linguistic content of the speech but preserves
nonverbal affective cues) and subjected to listening tests. Results showed that a decrease in experienced state anxiety after
treatment was accompanied by corresponding decreases in (a) several acoustic parameters (i.e., mean and maximum voice pitch,
high-frequency components in the energy spectrum, and proportion of silent pauses), and (b) listeners’ perceived level of
nervousness. Both speakers’ self-ratings of state anxiety and listeners’ ratings of perceived nervousness were further correlated
with similar acoustic parameters. The results complement earlier studies on vocal affect expression which have been conducted
on posed, rather than authentic, emotional speech. |
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Keywords: | Anxiety Fear Vocal expression Social phobia Speech |
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